Abstract

Background and aims: Workplace violence against female nurses is a significant and increasing problem. In most of cases, female nurses do not report violent events. The aims of current research were to investigate workplace violence against female nurses in three general hospitals of Ilam, Iran in 2012 and identify their reactions when facing with violent events. Methods: This study is a descriptive research to investigate prevalence of workplace violence against female nurses. The required information was obtained using an author-made questionnaire that was distributed among 53 nurses. SPSS software was used for data analysis. Results: Among the samples, 90.6 and 15.1 of participants had faced with verbal and physical assaults of patients during last year, respectively. Moreover, respectively 92.5 and 11.3 of nurses had experienced verbal and physical assaults of patients' companions. Remarkably, most of nursing staff believed that reporting aggressive evident is not useful at all. A significant correlation was found between physical assaults of patients against age of nurses. In addition, a relationship between verbal violence of patients versus marriage status of nurses was observed (p< 0.05). Conclusion: A large rate of aggressive incidents was observed against female nurses, in present study. In this regards, increasing number of security guards can significantly reduce existing violence. Also, recording aggressive events and legally pursuing the people who committed violence are essential. © 2015, Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Health Services. All rights reserved.